Custodians of French language finally cave in to the 'feminine form'

Pont des Arts and the Institut de France, which houses the Académie Française
Guardians of the purity of the French language are to accept feminine forms of job titles in minor revolution Credit: Corbis Documentary/Corbis Documentary

Custodians of the French language are reportedly on the verge of enacting a linguistic “revolution” by finally accepting that job titles take the feminine form.

For centuries, members of the hallowed Académie Française - created in 1635 to "fix the French language, giving it rules, rendering it pure and comprehensible by all” - had refused to accept that words such as “professeur” (teacher) or ingénieur (engineer) be made “professeure” or “ingénieure” for women.

“The Immortals”, as académiciens are known, had repeatedly argued that to add an “e” to such male titles would “end up with proposals that are contrary to the spirit of the language”.

The cause appeared lost when Hélène Carrère d’Encausse became the Académie's first ever female perpetual secretary in 1999 and announced she would be referred to as “Madame le secrétaire perpetuel”, in the masculine form. She also opposed “la ministre” (a female minister), preferring “Madame le ministre”. The argument was that gender had nothing to do with job title.

View of Academie Francaise building and Pont des Arts. Paris
The Académie Française, custodians of the French language, are reportedly about to accept feminine versions of job titles long deemed unaccetable Credit:  Bernard Jaubert/ Photographer's Choice

But the the institution, which has faced recent accusations of linguistic sexism, has changed tack after placing its entire dictionary online for the first time this month.

Since then, Ms Carrère d’Encaisse has already given some ground, telling Le Figaro: “There are things that enter usage, such as ‘Madame la ministre’. ‘La ministre' is not a problem.” However, she said she drew the line at “écrivaine” (a female writer) on the grounds that "it’s very ugly”.

But according to l’Express, the Académie will announce on February 28 its intention to include “feminised” versions of such occupations alongside the longstanding masculine nouns.

Bernard Cerquiglini, an eminent linguist who has written a book on the subject called “Le Ministre est enceinte” (The minister - masculine form - is pregnant), said the Académie”s position had become “untenable”.

He pointed out that some feminine job titles had been in its dictionaries as far back as 1932, but only ones not considered too “eminent”, such as “aviatrice” (aviator) or “avocate” (lawyer).

The most telling example, he said, was “ambassadrice” (female ambassador), which it still defines as “wife of an ambassador”.

He told BFM TV: “I think a large part of the Académie realised it could no longer stick to a stance that was, in fact, misogynistic.”

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